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{
    "id": 1346002,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1346002/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 67,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "that Sen. Sifuna brings into politics not only in this House, but also in the country. There is somewhere he draws his strength. Mr. Speaker, Sir, being a young person in this country and reading books, left- wing politics has been one of the hardest to be in. This is because it is related to defiance and always being against the system. However, left-wing politics can also be about standing for social justice, economic equality and fighting inequality in whichever form that it comes within our borders. These are the characters and things that represent Hon. Lawrence Sifuna. If you read the history of this country, we stand today in a very strong democracy because of the giants that came before us. I wish that spirit can inspire us that, indeed, when it comes to left-wing politics, we can stand and have a country where ethnicity is not the functional equation for employing others. In our country today, you will find that two tribes are grossly over-represented in terms of employment. These are things that Hon. Lawrence Sifuna fought against. Mr. Speaker, Sir, you find that the vibrancy of Parliament is extremely compromised. This is simply because the tenets of democracy, which includes being able to separate the Executive from Parliament is completely compromised. Parliament has become an appendage of the Executive to the extent that parliamentarians that have been sent to these two Houses; the Senate and the National Assembly, are hugely compromised. They bend laws for the Executive. We have passed laws in the Senate that are against the spirit of devolution because we are constantly inclining our politics to those of being covered by the Executive. Lastly, I want to celebrate my leader, the Hon. (Rt.) Raila Amollo Odinga. I know that I should not bring him into this. However, I want to celebrate him in the context of the idea that democracy does not always mean that, if you lose elections in a number of times, you give up. I say this because in the early 1990s, Hon. Lawrence Sifuna went back home after being affected by a lot of Mlolongo voting and still won a number of elections that inspired generations. I hope that we can learn from him. As a people, we should fight for electoral justice as one thing that this country has never been able to solve. Therefore, even as we have elections in future and after the bi-partisan talks, the hardest thing that we have been able to crack even in the process that has just ended, is the issue of electoral justice. I hope that the spirit of Hon. Lawrence Sifuna will inspire the top most leadership of this country, starting from the President, the Deputy President to vigogo wa siasa, as the Waswahili will say, to solve one issue that can unite this country. After an election, a country can sit back and anybody who loses will do so genuinely and anybody who wins, does so genuinely. People will sit together and build a nation on the tenets of a functional democracy that has been elusive to this country for years. May the soul of Hon. Lawrence Sifuna, rest in eternal peace. I thank you."
}